How to Hack Pokie Machines in Australia? Comprehensive Pokies Hack Guide

Everyone always talks about how pokie machines are random, so there’s no way to hack them, right? Well, that’s not strictly true because, believe it or not, there are some pokie hacks that people use to try to make more money from the machines. 

Whether it involves using fake coins, trying to replace computer chips, or doing some jiggery pokery with a piano wire, you probably won’t be surprised to find out that people have discovered almost every possible pokie hack imaginable. 

So, if you’re wondering how to hack pokie machines, we’ve put together a full guide on how to do it. But remember, our Betsquare team members are all truthful and responsible gamblers, so we would never use any of these hacks ourselves, and you shouldn’t either. This article is just for fun because trying to hack pokie machines for real could cause a myriad of legal issues for you. 

Key Points

All throughout history, people have been trying to find ways to cheat at gambling. Who wouldn’t want to make a little extra cash without risking any money? Criminals have especially gravitated towards the slot machines of Las Vegas, and even in pretty recent decades, there have been cases of slot hacks with millions of dollars. 

In the next section of our guide, we’ll detail some of the main pokies hacking methods and tell you about the people who used them successfully. One thing we have to note is that even attempting to tamper with casino games is seen as cheating, and it’s illegal. If you’re found to be trying to hack pokie machines in Australia, you could be banned from the casino or possibly even fined or jailed. 

How Do Pokie Machines Work?

Before thinking about hacks, you must understand how pokie machines work. 

When slot games first became popular, they relied on a physical mechanism to spin the reels. That made them a lot more susceptible to hacks from criminals. Ever since the 1970s, video slot games have been introduced in most casinos. These machines are fully electronic and work with random number generator technology, so the outcome of every spin is predetermined, and there’s nothing players can do to change it.

Online pokies work in the same way as modern video slots at land-based casinos. The Random Number Generator technology works via an advanced computer code, which generates a sequence of random numbers, determining which symbols will land in each position of the game grid.

This same process happens instantly every time you spin, so the outcome of one spin isn’t impacted by the spins before it – in other words, there’s no such thing as a slot being hot or cold. 

Whether you’re playing at land-based Australian pokie machines or you’re playing online, you can be guaranteed that you’ll have a fair experience, including a real chance of winning. So, when you think about it, there’s no point in hacking the machines anyway. 

As we mentioned, back in the days when pokie machines were a lot more manual, it was easier for olden-day hackers to make the machines operate in such a way that would result in a win.

Whether that was by stopping the reels with a magnet or using wires to interfere with spinning, there were ways and means by which pokie cheats could trick the casinos and take home large payouts to which they weren’t entitled. As technology began to advance, the focus shifted towards using computer codes to try to cheat on the machines.

Even though it might have been done in the past, we don’t suggest you try any of these hacks on pokie machines in Australia. It’s a much better idea to try for a win the honest way, and if you’re looking for advice, you can consult our casino tricks and tips page. 

The Yo-Yo Technique

The first slot hack is the yo-yo technique, which might have worked in the past, but it definitely wouldn’t work on Aussie slot machines today. Basically, a coin was attached to a string (like a yo-yo) and then inserted into the slot machine to start the game. Once the reels were spinning, the cheater could pull the coin out using the string and use it repeatedly.

The idea is that the game doesn’t realise the coin has been removed. Essentially, this method would allow you to bag potential real money wins without losing your own money. 

The only problem is that the yo-yo trick wouldn’t work nowadays because modern video slot machines no longer use coins. Plus, slots are a lot more sophisticated than they were in days gone by, so there’s no way you’d simply be able to yank the coin out. 

Top-Bottom Joint

Tommy Glenn Carmichael is a legendary slot game cheat, infamous for spending four decades hacking pokie machines in Las Vegas casinos. One of his main tricks was the top-bottom joint. This was a small device, one part of which was inserted near the machine’s circuit board, and the other half was inserted into the coin slot. When these two things happened simultaneously, it would essentially hot-wire the slot machine, resulting in a payout without landing a winning combination. 

Carmichael made a fortune selling these devices to wannabe cheaters in Vegas, but he did meet his downfall eventually and spent time in jail for his illegal activities. 

Using a Magnet

Using a magnet was a popular pokies hack in days gone by when slot machines still worked with more manual, primitive technology.

If you could take a strong magnet with you to a casino, you would have been able to use it to stop the reels spinning when you wanted to, rather than randomly. This could potentially ensure that you got a winning combination if you were very accurate. 

It’s important to remember that this hack would only have been possible with real pokie machines rather than online slots. Nowadays, that doesn’t even work, as land-based pokies are all programmed using computer technology and algorithms. 

Cheat Codes

While many of these pokie cheats were useful in the past, technology has advanced and become much more sophisticated since you could trigger a win with a magnet. In the 21st century, all casino games (both land-based and online casinos) use Random number Generator technology. 

But online can be hacked, too – you just need to do it in a more digital way. In theory, it’s possible to interfere with the game’s source code and get it to pay out more than it would under normal circumstances. However, this is pretty much impossible for players because online games are developed by trustworthy companies that are externally audited to guarantee fairness. 

Using pokie machine cheats might be a little easier in person, but only if you’re in the know. For example, Ronald Dale Harris was a computer programmer who worked for the Nevada Control Board in the 1990s, and he managed to access the source code of slot machines in Las Vegas to get them to pay out more. But just like Tommy Carmichael, Harris was eventually caught and arrested.

Using Piano Wire

You might wonder how on earth this could possibly work, but the truth is that a gang of criminals used this pokies hack to win at least $10 million in jackpot payouts across the US.

John Vaccaro and his group would visit a casino in Las Vegas, New Jersey, or Lake Tahoe and surround one of the real pokie machines so no one could see what they were doing. They would open up the slot machine and insert piano wires, which they could then use to manipulate the reels into winning configurations.

This was back in the 1980s, so slot machines didn’t function the same way as most of them do today, which meant that the more manual reels were open to being hacked this way. No matter how covert Vaccaro and his gang were, they were still caught by New Jersey police and spent time in jail. 

Between CCTV and casino security, this hack wouldn’t work on any pokie machines in Australia today. 

Monkey Paw

Another one by the notorious Tommy Glenn Carmichael, the Monkey Paw, was a device used to hack casino slot machines into providing a payout without the player actually having to wager. 

The Monkey Paw was made with a guitar string attached to a metal wand. This was inserted into the slot machines via a vent, and then it could be used to flip the switch that would, in turn, trigger a payout. This could be done by manually moving the wire around inside the machine or using an electric current to trip the switch.

Rather than other methods that could manipulate the reels into stopping on winning combinations, this slots hack was essentially just stealing money from the machines without having to wager at all. 

Slot machines don’t work in the same way anymore, so firstly, it’s doubtful that you’d be able to get a device like this into a machine, and secondly, it wouldn’t work even if you did. Plus, casinos have many security staff around to spot this type of carry-on.

Fake Coins

This method of hacking pokies is pretty much exactly what it sounds like—it involves using fake casino tokens to trick the machine into spinning the reels and potentially awarding you a win. You’re basically just playing for free.

Louis “The Coin” Colavecchio pioneered this method of cheating after he and his gang replicated the coins of Atlantic City casinos in the 1990s. These fake coins could either be used to play towards a win or simply taken to the cashier to exchange for real money. Unsurprisingly, Colavecchio was caught and arrested, but he resumed his nefarious activities shortly after his release from prison. 

Nowadays, fake coins won’t work on real money pokies in Australia or anywhere else, as slot machines tend to take money directly, or you’ll have to top up a card at the cashier’s desk rather than using metal tokens to start the games. Slot machines now dispense paper tickets for redemption, and these come with specific barcodes that are much harder to fake.

Shaved Coins

Casino slot machine cheats are used to trick the games into believing that shaved coins were casino coins; in that way, they could play for free and possibly trigger a win. If you shaved down a real coin a little, it might be able to pass for one of the special casino coins that you had to insert into slot machines to get them to start spinning. 

Nowadays, video slot machines are a lot harder to trick in this way, as you now usually put real money straight into the machine or use a player’s card. If you win, you’ll get a printed ticket to redeem for your cash rather than casino coins. In other words, there’s no way you could use this hack on modern Australian slot machines, so it’s not even worth trying. 

Light Wand

Tommy Glenn Carmichael invented the light wand. After getting a glimpse inside a slot machine, he devised a system that he believed could actually beat it.

Carmichael took a lightbulb attached to a camera battery and shone it into the slot machine’s mechanism. The idea was that the light wand would blind the sensor so that it wouldn’t know how much it was meant to pay out. This would mean you could simply ask the slot machine to pay you out as much as you wish – or at least as much as you could, without getting caught. 

While it might seem like a great trick, there’s no way this pokie hack would work on the best-paying pokie machines in Australia these days. The computer algorithms and slot machine technology are too smart to be taken for a fool by a simple light bulb.

Replacing Computer Chips

For 22 years, Dennis Nikrasch ripped off Las Vegas casinos for millions of dollars until he was caught and arrested. He did this by using a computer device to manipulate slot machines to provide him with huge payouts. What makes this even more interesting is that he was cheating on modern video slot games, not the old-style ones, where it was much easier to change the outcome of the reels.

With the help of other criminals, Nikrasch was able to obtain some casino slot machines and take them apart to try to decipher how they worked. He identified that a microchip was responsible for determining when the slot would pay out a jackpot, and he was then able to create a similar chip and insert it into the machines at real casinos to trigger a jackpot for himself. 

Bill Validator Device

A bill validator device is one of the few pokies hacks usable on the digital slot machines of the modern-day era, rather than just the old, mechanical ones. However, it’s still not a good thing to do, as it’s a very obvious way of cheating, and you’re likely to get caught by the casino floor staff.

When you use this hack on real pokie machines, you’ll be tricking the machine into thinking you’ve deposited more than you actually have. For example, you could use a bill validator device to make a $1 note look like a $100 note. Once you’ve used this device to trick the slot for the first time, you can go on to make it seem like you’ve deposited even more money without doing so.

Using a bill validator device was quite popular about 10 years ago, but most newer slot machines have technology that prevents it from working. 

Summary

While trying to hack pokie machines might seem like a lucrative way to make a quick buck, that’s not the case at all. As you can see from many of our examples, the vast majority of people who try to cheat at gambling get caught, and many of them even end up serving jail time.

Even if nothing drastic happens, you might still get banned from your favourite casino, and then you’ll have no chance of a win.

Rather than try to hack your way to a win at a land-based casino, we recommend trying online slots instead. As long as you’re playing at a reputable and licensed online casino site, you can rest assured that all of the games will be fair, so you’ll have a chance at a win.

Although the games at the best gambling sites in Australia are all random, there are some strategies you can apply. For example, you are managing your bankroll, playing high RTP slots, or trying progressive jackpots.

If you’re looking for the best gambling sites where you can sign up now, we have a full list available. When you sign up via Betsquare, you’ll even be eligible for a big bonus.